Evaluation of marine ranching resources and environmental carrying capacity from the pressure-and-support perspective: A case study of Yantai

•Resources and environment carrying capacity (RECC) of marine ranching is defined.•Marine ranching RECC system is analyzed from the pressure-and-support perspective.•The index system for evaluating marine ranching RECC is constructed.•The model for measuring the state of marine ranching RECC is established.•The RECC states of marine ranching enterprises in Yantai are evaluated and analyzed. The pressure on the resources and environment of marine ranching has been increasing due to its large-scale construction and rapid development. Marine ranching resources and environmental carrying capacity (RECC) are important for the sustainable development of marine ranching. This paper constructs a marine ranching RECC evaluation index system based on the analysis of the marine ranching RECC system from the pressure-and-support perspective. Also, on the basis of the determination of index weights using the probabilistic linguistic preference relation (PLPR) method, a model to calculate the marine ranching RECC index is introduced and applied to analyzing the RECC states of 11 marine ranching enterprises in Yantai, China. Based on the obtained results, the following conclusions are drawn. First, the RECC of 11 marine ranching enterprises in Yantai is in a severe state on the whole. Second, the average RECC performance of national marine ranching enterprises is better than that of the provincial marine ranching enterprises. Third, both the pressure and support levels of most marine ranching enterprises in Yantai are relatively low. Finally, there are certain main obstacle indexes in each subsystem that limit the RECC level. This study helps a comprehensive understanding of marine ranching RECC status in Yantai and provides an important reference for the scientific construction and management of marine ranching in China.